Overhaulin'

How to buy a hybrid car that can be economical by price and maintenance?

Long term usage and value for money.

Public Comments

1. HYBRID CARS ARE JUST AS ANTI-GREEN AS ANY BIG TRUCK dont be fooled by the car companies marketing. Hybrids are nothing to be excited about. Think about it, they are the FIRST attempt at something econmically and evironmentally friendly(electric cars dont count becuase they were never mass produced) history has shown us that the FIRST attempts at most new inventions were teribble in comparrison to newer versions. It is exactly the same with Hybrids, they are not saving the environment so much more as they are damaging it faster. The biggest issue with them are the batteries. Those batteries cause more damage then any oil rig ever will. Not only does the process of extracting the nickel used in them cause massive damage to the earths crust(mining practices used to get nickel are very damaging, people get killed, and it creates toxic gas and acid rain when done on a large scale.) but the process of nickel refinment in the case of a hybrid battery spans across several countries(mined in Canada, processed futher in the UK, China, and Japan) thats 4 countries that now have exponentially more pollution understand also that as the demand for these hybrids goes up, the process must take place on a larger and larger scale causing more and more damage. Im not trying to say that this technology is not good, just wait until the process gets better and less harmfull. Your better off with a one battery car for now.
2. Don't listen to the other poster, they obviously have an axe to grind, and decided to just make stuff up. As for your question, either the Prius or new Honda Insight hybrids are both excellent choices. The best way to get value out of them is to buy a used one. The Insight is too new for that, so you'd have to wait a couple of years. But you can find reasonably priced Prius' with average miles on them. Toyota produces them, and they've shown remarkable reliability. Expect the same with the Insight, as Honda does the same thing. I have an Aunt who bought a prius brand new in '03, and has 170K miles on it. She has done virtually nothing to it maintenance wise. Good luck.